Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders

Workbook

Description

Emerging conceptualizations of major emotional disorders emphasize their commonalities rather than their differences, including considerable overlap in disorder phenomenology, a common set of vulnerabilities to development of emotional disorders, and generalization of treatment response across disorders. Current research lends support for a unified transdiagnostic approach to treatment of these disorders that considers these commonalities and is applicable to a range of emotional disorders.

Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders, part of the TreatmentsThatWork series of therapist manuals and patient workbooks, is a radical departure from disorder-specific treatments of various emotional disorders, and is designed to be applicable to all anxiety and unipolar mood disorders, as well as other disorders with strong emotional components, such as many somatoform and dissociative disorders. The Unified Protocol (UP) capitalizes on the contributions made by cognitive-behavioral theorists by distilling and incorporating the common principles of CBT present in all evidenced based protocols for specific emotional disorders, as well as drawing on the field of emotion science for insights into deficits in emotion regulation. The UP contains seven modules and focuses on four core strategies: becoming mindfully aware of emotional experience; reappraising rigid emotion laden attributions; identifying and preventing behavioral and emotional avoidance; and facilatating exposure to both interoceptive and situational cues associated with emotional experiences. Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders will be an essential resource for all therapists and psychiatrists who implement CBT strategies, as well as any clinician treating anxiety and depressive disorders.

Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders

Workbook

Author Information

David H. Barlow, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Founder and Director Emeritus of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University. He is the editor for the Treatments That Work series of therapist manuals and patient workbooks, as well as the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Psychology.

Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders

Workbook

Reviews and Awards

"A truly important book. This new approach to the treatment of the emotion-based disorders specifies in a lucid and accessible way a coherent group of strategies and procedures for addressing the processes that maintain these disorders. Strongly recommended."--Christopher G. Fairburn, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

"With admirable grace, David Barlow's Unified Protocol segues through a series of evidence-based change techniques. Discussions of motivational interviewing, cognitive flexibility, and empathy are especially lucid. Hats off to the authorship team! Thanks for leading us into a new era of evidence-based practice."--Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University

"The unified protocol distills the core strategies emerging from the cognitive and behavioral interventions into a common set of principles that can be applied broadly to treat a diverse array of emotional and psychological disorders. The approach has great merit and represents a valuable advance in the field of clinical interventions."--Steven D. Hollon, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University

"In addressing the two problems of comorbidity and transdiagnostic symptoms, David Barlow and his colleagues have developed a treatment program with wide applicability in everyday clinical practice--important for all mental health professionals."--Richard J. McNally, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Harvard University

"The therapist guide and patient workbook provide an important step-by-step resource for therapists, as well as education and concrete treatment strategies for patients themselves."--Suzanne Bennett Johnson, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor, Florida State University College of Medicine